[Article] AYUMI HAMASAKI, DO PEOPLE JUST NOT CARE?

[AyuWorld]

(pic of Ayu and her husband entering her car)

AYUMI HAMASAKI, DO PEOPLE JUST NOT CARE?

According to a report from gossip magazine FRIDAY, sticky caps singer aYUMI HAMASaKI was spotted in sunglasses leaving a Nishi-Azabu Bar with her husband. Yes, this is not an unusual occurrence, but what struck this reporter as bizarre is that absolutely no one recognized her or they simply did not care.

The singer’s 15-year career has allowed her to be dubbed the “Empress of J-Pop” due to her popularity and widespread influence throughout Asia. However, her reign appears to have ended around the time of the release of her 2012 album ‘Party Queen’ in which many fans dub as “trashy” or “Did Ayumi Hamasaki even release an album in 2012?”. Her latest single ‘Feel the love / Merry-go-round’ sold a measly 30,000, her worst since 1998′s ‘Depend on You’.

Just earlier this year Hamasaki (35) married a 25-year-old medical student at the University of California she met a year earlier while on vacation. The couple settled down in Los Angeles and communication with her agency Avex has since been increasingly difficult. According to CYZO, upper management at Avex comments that “she [Hamasaki] does not have the same motivation to work as she did in the past” and that “her sales no longer warrant the burden of draining costs from her transportation”.

Her sales are not the only thing suffering. Tickets for the star’s current tour ‘ayumi hamasaki PREMIUM SHOWCASE ～Feel the love～’ sell for 9,300 yen, higher than her usual 8,500 yen to make up for all the unsold tickets. She is also performing different songs on different days in order to have fans come back for more. Whether it’s just clever marketing to help fund her constant trips between Tokyo and Los Angeles, she realizes the dive her career path is heading towards and taking desperate measures to make up for it.

In the past, her albums were scheduled to be released without any competition, but a new development shows she is no longer granted priority. Her 15th Album ‘CoLOURS’ is planned for a June 2nd release, the same day as label-mate Kis-My-Ft2′s 3rd album ‘Kis-My-Journey’. The group’s previous album ‘Good Ikuze!’ took the top spots in DVD, single, and album sales at the same time, a feat previously only accomplished by Ayumi Hamasaki.

Since her pristine track record had been tarnished from her past few albums, Avex is unsure of what to do with her and where her future within the company stands.

SOURCE: FRIDAY (IMG), CYZO,

original source: http://aramajapan.com/news/ayumi-ham...rrelevant/379/

[4minute Girl]

this was so upsetting to read i wish she was still the biggest entertainer in Japan again she deserves every bit of success!

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Actually on some gossip site, they were mentioning that someone tweeted her and asked if she was "going to to leave Avex and go independent" to which she replied "I'll leave Avex if Max leaves avex, so in other words, that's not going to happen" or something along those lines.

Also, people were writing mean things about A Exercise like "before releasing this, shouldn't you (Ayu) lose weight too?"

[truehappiness]

Some of the information here is flat out wrong... but oh well.

[visionfactory]

So that's what that article was about, thx for translating

[HULUFan]

Stupid conjecture again. Doesn't the reporter know ayu always performs different songs on different days, and the actual release date for Colours is July 2nd? LOL
Also, since April 1, 2014, Japan's sales tax has rised from 5% to 8% which is one of the reasons why there is a slight increase on ticket price. Plus, there is a bonus CD this time given out to every audience. And to get this single, you just need to spend 800 more yens for each ticket than before. It's a great deal, isn't it? LOL
Before translating existing old news from Japanese to English, why didn't he/she just know these basic facts first? LOL
Besides, ayu has already responded to this type of rumours at twitter a couple of days ago. This news is just too lagging! LOL

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, DO REPORTERS JUST NOT CARE?

[ayu-michan]

Lol what. I'm just lmao so hard.

[Bigtop]

Man...I cannot believe this. It seems Avex doesn't care on Ayu anymore? After all, times have REALLY changed...is this another sign of the times?

[LONJJONG]

“she [Hamasaki] does not have the same motivation to work as she did in the past”
Seriously? She has released a lot of stuff and even worked with famous producers for Colours... is this article even legit? I mean it's from Friday which is a gossip magazine..

[Surreal17]

Originally Posted by LONJJONG

“she [Hamasaki] does not have the same motivation to work as she did in the past”
Seriously? She has released a lot of stuff and even worked with famous producers for Colours... is this article even legit? I mean it's from Friday which is a gossip magazine..

agree
bullshit magazine

[AyUmIXx]

Originally Posted by LONJJONG

“she [Hamasaki] does not have the same motivation to work as she did in the past”
Seriously? She has released a lot of stuff and even worked with famous producers for Colours... is this article even legit? I mean it's from Friday which is a gossip magazine..

if she doesn't have motivation to work, the colours album won't be that awesome, it's only the PVs that are lacking. but as a whole, Colours is a great album.

haishh..some reporters are just so mean about ayu..

and reading people's comments on the arama goshh... unbelievable...
ayu busy chasing some foreign men? seriously? he has only 2 foreign men she's married to.. not like she has 10 men in 3 years..geez!!

[untitled-for-her]

Originally Posted by LONJJONG

“she [Hamasaki] does not have the same motivation to work as she did in the past”
Seriously? She has released a lot of stuff and even worked with famous producers for Colours... is this article even legit? I mean it's from Friday which is a gossip magazine..

It would make sense though if she was losing motivation. Ever since Party Queen, things have been really different.

She doesn't do magazine photo shoots nearly as much as she used to, she doesn't perform on music shows anymore, and she has had a habit of releasing the same things repeatedly as "new material". (For example, LOVE & again --> LOVEagain. And she also released the entire Colours album via singles. Which I found odd.) Not to mention the fact that the minute she tries to settle down, she gets hate for it.

And this is really upsetting. Because, think about it from her perspective. People focus more on her personal life than her music now. And she has to deal with that. She's releasing music, knowing that she will still be dubbed the "Jpop Empress gone downhill" and there is little she can do to redeem herself.

I'm hoping that with time, people in Japan will let her in with open arms again and she will rise back to the top. But the thing is, she is in a very harsh and unforgiving environment.

She did everything she has ever done for the benefit of the fans. She based her whole career on the fanbase. And I'd lose motivation too if the fans turned on me the way they have to her.

To be honest, quitting music--or just going on a hiatus--may just be the best thing for her. She's a newlywed and she shouldn't have to deal with the pressures of the industry at a time that's supposed to be the best in her life.

Whether or not she does, I'll always support her. Lately, she just seems... tired. And it's hard to see her like this.

However, Colours is a huge success in my eyes and the amount of promotion being done for the album makes me feel like ayu is getting back on her feet and is ready to take on the competition.

I feel like this album will be a first step to going back into the right direction.

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by untitled-for-her

It would make sense though if she was losing motivation. Ever since Party Queen, things have been really different.

She doesn't do magazine photo shoots nearly as much as she used to, she doesn't perform on music shows anymore, and she has had a habit of releasing the same things repeatedly as "new material". (For example, LOVE & again --> LOVEagain. And she also released the entire Colours album via singles. Which I found odd.) Not to mention the fact that the minute she tries to settle down, she gets hate for it.

And this is really upsetting. Because, think about it from her perspective. People focus more on her personal life than her music now. And she has to deal with that. She's releasing music, knowing that she will still be dubbed the "Jpop Empress gone downhill" and there is little she can do to redeem herself.

I'm hoping that with time, people in Japan will let her in with open arms again and she will rise back to the top. But the thing is, she is in a very harsh and unforgiving environment.

She did everything she has ever done for the benefit of the fans. She based her whole career on the fanbase. And I'd lose motivation too if the fans turned on me the way they have to her.

To be honest, quitting music--or just going on a hiatus--may just be the best thing for her. She's a newlywed and she shouldn't have to deal with the pressures of the industry at a time that's supposed to be the best in her life.

Whether or not she does, I'll always support her. Lately, she just seems... tired. And it's hard to see her like this.

However, Colours is a huge success in my eyes and the amount of promotion being done for the album makes me feel like ayu is getting back on her feet and is ready to take on the competition.

I feel like this album will be a first step to going back into the right direction.

The only reason people are more focused on her personal life now is because she put her personal life out on display for people. So she really only has herself to blame for that. She purposely put that picture with Manni in the Return road PV. She could've re-shot the covers with Maro on them or even shot them with a random model but she chose to keep them despite the backlash that was already brewing from fans and the general public that was tired and skeptical of her relationship news being centered around album releases.

And no one can deny the fact that visually, her PVs are laughable compared
to before, and I don't know if I can say that everything she does is for her fans at all, since its not like it's charity. She is a business and is making money.

Atleast musically she is still capable to churning out the occasional hit. But the general public won't be interested in finding them if she continues to package them so terribly with those PVs.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Yumsushi

The only reason people are more focused on her personal life now is because she put her personal life out on display for people. So she really only has herself to blame for that. She purposely put that picture with Manni in the Return road PV. She could've re-shot the covers with Maro on them or even shot them with a random model but she chose to keep them despite the backlash that was already brewing from fans and the general public that was tired and skeptical of her relationship news being centered around album releases.

And no one can deny the fact that visually, her PVs are laughable compared
to before, and I don't know if I can say that everything she does is for her fans at all, since its not like it's charity. She is a business and is making money.

Atleast musically she is still capable to churning out the occasional hit. But the general public won't be interested in finding them if she continues to package them so terribly with those PVs.

I can deny. People should state their opinions as what they are: opinions.

I don't get the praise for some tacky/cheap videos like Surreal, Real Me, my name's WOMEN, Voyage, the 1st triology, no way to say or M, and IMO her videos from RnRC to LOVE again shit all over those. You can be ashamed of Lelio all you want, I still find it harder to show people Ayumi interacting with a bizarre Santa Claus on a dramatic video.

[krtman2002]

Originally Posted by kaito_moonlove

http://aramajapan.com/news/ayumi-ham...rrelevant/379/
I saw this news from my friend and had the quite shock !
Is this real or just the rumors ?

I really think she's not as relevant in jpop as she was before, but I'm sure she'll continue singing and releasing music... That's her life: work. So I wouldn't care that much about these kind of articles.

We hope CoLOURS help her earn more popularity and money,

[YUKARI]

this is sad

[emi♡]

lol isnt arama always kind of sassy?


or sorry. Aren't all Asian news outlets always kind of sassy

[owlflight]

Well I care about Ayu! I've been a fan for nearly six years and though my interest has waxed and waned over that time, she is still one of my favorite singers. I'm the type of fan that would be too nervous to approach a celebrity in everyday life. Beside any gossip magazine I ever seen or read doesn't necessarily state only facts. They are full of opinions and some will say anything to get attention and sell more magazines.

[kinix]

Her sales are not the only thing suffering. Tickets for the star’s current tour ‘ayumi hamasaki PREMIUM SHOWCASE ～Feel the love～’ sell for 9,300 yen, higher than her usual 8,500 yen to make up for all the unsold tickets. She is also performing different songs on different days in order to have fans come back for more. Whether it’s just clever marketing to help fund her constant trips between Tokyo and Los Angeles, she realizes the dive her career path is heading towards and taking desperate measures to make up for it.

This paragraph is totally not true though.

[kendelle]

Harsh. I hope this doesn't dim the chances of her continuing to tour in the coming years. I'm always kind of worried about what I'll do if she retires.... ;_;

I think she still enjoys performing and recording now though - just seems that increasingly she's just working for herself. Not always bad but it's not really endearing her to newcomers.

I would really like to see some heavy promotion invested in her again. I really think that would make a noticeable difference.